Host Perry bounced back from a disappointing loss in their first game Saturday to win the consolation game at the annual Paul and Mary Ann Graves Classic at the Perry Athletic Complex.
The event is named in honor of Mary Ann and the late Paul Graves, instrumental figures in amateur and high school softball, not only in Perry but across Iowa. Long held on Graves Diamond in Pattee Park, the event moved to the PAC several years ago.
Van Meter (6-3) topped IKM-Manning (1-4), 13-1, and then ripped Baxter (4-2), 11-1, to win the tourney title. Perry (1-5) was a 12-2 victim to Baxter in five innings in the first game, then responded strongly to win 12-1 in a five-inning consolation game, with IKM-Manning the victim.
Perry head coach Tina Lutterman was less than pleased with the play of her team in the opener and challenged her team to “take responsibility” for their efforts and play in a between-game meeting.
“I was very pleased with how we responded,” she said. “I told them to take ownership of how they played and they did. Several girls really stepped up and had their best games.”
Lutterman has stressed all along that a young Jayette team would have difficulties inside the Raccoon River Conference, which currently boasts the teams rated first (ADM), second (Carlisle), 10th (Boone) and 11th (Winterset). Staying close in those games while gaining experience for future success is a goal, Lutterman said, challenging the team to battle strong in every outing.
“We are going to have games where the other team is too strong and we know that,” she said. “We are young and still figuring out how things are going to work, but what I am looking for is for us to go out and play hard like we did in the second game today.”
Perry was the visitor in the first game and posted a quick 1-0 lead when Lydia Olejniczak led off the game with a solo home run, her second fence-clearer of the season.
Baxter tied the game with a tally in their first at-bat, then began piling on runs, scoring twice in the second, four times in the third and five times in the fourth innings. Jayette errors extended frames and multiplied the damage done, with just four of the 12 runs scored by the Bolts being earned.
Olejniczak singled and scored on an Adriana Eastman double in the fifth but could not extend the game.
Peyton Tunink, Jayna Kenney and Macy Killmer added base hits, with Bella Nath stroking a pair of singles.
Kenney walked one batter, allowed 10 hits and struck out win in four innings of work for Perry in the ring.
Sydney Schmidt allowed eight hits, walked one batter and struck out one in collecting the win. Both runs she allowed were earned.
Eighth grader Mandee Selover paced the Bolt charge with a double, two singles and two RBIs.
Perry wasted little time in taking charge of their second game. The home team in the outing, the Jayettes plated three runs in the first inning, two more in the second and then tacked on seven runs in the fourth after IKM-Manning had scored their lone run of the game in the top of the frame.
Killmer cut loose, driving in six runs with a double and two singles while scoring twice, with Eastman adding two doubles and crossing the plate three times. Olejniczak had two singles and scored once, with Nath driving in a run and scoring twice.
Kenney had two hits and two runs, Cassidy Heck a single and three RBIs and Kennedy Tunink a base hit while Peyton Tunink and Gabby West each provided base hits and a run scored.
Peyton Tunink yielded one run on just two hits in five frames. She hit one batter and struck out two.
Perry hosts Carlisle Monday, visits Greene County Tuesday and Bondurant-Farrar Wednesday and then returns home to entertain Ballard Thursday. The Jayettes will play once Friday and then twice Saturday in the Woodward-Granger Classic to cap a hectic week.
